A free-range poultry farm is being built in North Otago by a company owned by the country's largest egg producer.
The farm at Waianakarua, south of Oamaru, will have up to 16,000 hens in its first stage, Mainland Poultry Ltd says.
Earthworks have started and the first eggs are expected about the middle of next year.
The Waitaki District Council last month granted land use consent for earthworks and non-complying access to the property to Natural Chicken Company Ltd, wholly owned by Mainland.
Mainland supplies egg products under brands that include Farmer Brown and Glenpark Woodland eggs.
Yesterday, Mainland said it could not provide details on the cost of the development, the number of hens or how many eggs it would produce because the project was in its early stages.
Details obtained from the resource application showed development would include an office, packing shed, three laying sheds, fencing, shade planting and boundary planting.
Mainland sales and marketing director Hamish Sutherland said the new farm was an extension of its 24ha Glenpark free-range operation at Dunback, New Zealand's largest.
In 2012, Mainland spent $2million expanding Glenpark, from 48,000 hens to 64,000.
Mr Sutherland said the scale of the Waianakarua project would depend on market demand.
''While this development is for free-range egg production, demand in supermarkets from consumers is still very price-driven, with cage and colony eggs accounting for over three-quarters of all eggs sold,'' he said.
Detailed regulations covered farming hens and housing them, including for free-ranging, he said.
This included specifying land available for hens to range in (less than 2500 hens per ha), the number and size of access holes to the ranging area, stocking densities (nine hens per metre) and the number of nest boxes for each 100 hens.
In addition, as a supplier to New Zealand supermarkets and exporter, the company was subject to a rigorous auditing programme, covering labelling based on provenance, food safety, biosecurity and animal welfare.
Waitaki District Council planning manager Peter Kloosterman yesterday confirmed a resource consent was granted last month.
No other consent was needed from his council, because free-range poultry farming was a permitted activity in the rural zone, under certain conditions, which the operation met.
Council water services and waste manager Martin Pacey said the company had been granted extra units of water, which would come from the Herbert-Waianakarua water scheme.
Pipes were being upgraded and other users would benefit from that.
